Jungle Adventures

Our second trip to the jungle of Peru was definitely a monumental one. We were hosted in our favorite house — Jungle Bunks at Cashibo Lake — where we also had the opportunity to stay back in April. This open-air house on stilts is built amidst the rainforest and the master bedroom on the second floor almost feels like you’re in a tree house with its wall of glass looking into the treetops where troops of monkeys and beautiful butterflies pass through. There are no distractions — no wifi to occupy your time, only jungle sounds, cool breezes and heavy downpours on the tin roof. This is “our” favorite place to find solitude.

While in the jungle, we served two ministries: Scalpel at the Cross and a missionary couple with Pioneers. We already had the opportunity to produce two videos for Scalpel at the Cross back in April, but we did not get to see the heart of its mission in action until this trip. Scalpel at the Cross offers medical and surgical care to the Peruvian people and to the missionaries who serve them. Incredibly talented orthopedic surgeons take vacation time to come from the U.S. to the jungle city of Pucallpa three or four times a year to offer complex surgeries for free. Below is a video we produced for them earlier this year, which portrays how a patient’s life can change dramatically from one of these surgeries and the follow up care they receive from their permanent on-the-ground staff.

We look forward to putting together the video we just filmed during Scalpel’s most recent medical campaign, where they preformed nearly a dozen surgeries from highly disabling orthopedic trauma cases to hip replacements for arthritic patients. We can’t wait to share with you these doctors’ humble perspectives of why they are passionate about serving with the gifts they have.

Another highlight to the trip was our time serving Brad and Rebecca Howe, missionaries with Pioneers. Pioneers mobilizes teams to glorify God among unreached peoples by initiating church-planting movements in partnership with local churches. Their work is a long-term commitment, as they have to learn not just one, but two or three languages while living among the tribal people to build trust and friendships before they’re able to preach and teach the gospel.

We had the experience of a lifetime spending three days and two nights in a tribe deep in Peru’s jungle, in a village that’s only accessible by taking an hour and 15 minute flight from the nearest developed city on a four-passenger airplane. Once we landed on the grass landing strip that’s maintained by machete by a few men in the village, we found so much beauty in the Ásheninka culture. From enjoying bright red sunrises and bathing in the river, we’ll whet your pallet with just a few photos below and save the real stories and plethora of photos for when we can share the video with you! We’ve been filming basically nonstop since then, and so we’ve only had a few hours of editing time put toward this video, but we can already tell that it’s going to be a beautiful story. Click here to read Jordan’s blog post “Woven Together” about serving in the jungle!

Before we left Pucallpa, we were able to bless two seniors at SAM Academy by giving them a jungle portrait session for their senior photos. It’s been a while since we’ve done a portrait session, so it was fun doing an out-of-the-ordinary task for us as well. We also got to go to the zoo one day, and saw lots of native wildlife. It was truly a blessing for us to return to Pucallpa and hang out with all the same missionaries we had befriended from our previous trip. We were warmly welcomed into homes for meals and got surprise treats delivered to us in the morning. We got to swim in the Brock’s pool and meet the new addition to their farm family— two litters of two-month-old German Shepherd puppies! We absolutely love the community in Pucallpa and hope we get the chance to return again in the future! While we were there, we were also blessed by one of the Scalpel at the Cross orthopedic surgeons. Jordan injured his foot three weeks prior and was still in pain and limping, and we couldn’t have asked for a better specialist to examine it. We got an X-Ray of Jordan’s foot at the local hospital and the surgeon diagnosed it immediately. Jordan’s foot is indeed broken, but thankfully it’s a non-displaced hairline fracture and it’s healing in the correct position. We were told it’d take eight weeks before it will be completely healed, so we had to abandon our surf trip plans at the longest left break in the world, which just so happens to be on the north coast of Peru. Please pray that it continues to heal without further injury!

These pups were NOT at the zoo!

Since leaving the jungle, we’ve spent a week in Lima. We hosted a storytelling workshop, our fifth workshop this year, and nearly 50 people came! It was our first time that the majority of the audience who came were nationals (rather than foreign missionaries), and everyone who came were either missionaries or involved in ministry in Peru. We’ve also been filming an interesting video project here in Lima that’s a bit different than our typical story. Though we’re working with one missionary and his local church, the purpose of this video is not in any way to promote their ministry, but instead to teach about the importance of the local church and its role to mobilize missions. We’re excited about this project and the outcome this video might have on people’s perspectives about mission. We are heading to Arequipa, Peru for one week to continue filming for this project and will also be filming for two different ministries while we’re there. Once our week in Arequipa is up, we’ll be saying goodbye to Peru to head to Central America for the month of October.

At the storytelling workshop that we hosted in Lima on Friday.

Praying over a family after enjoying lunch at some church members’ house in Lima.

One of the lectures at a missions/pastors conference in Lima.

We of course couldn’t give you an update without sharing a few more videos though! Like we mentioned in our last blog post, we spent a month editing in Lima before going to the jungle. We got all caught up on our outstanding video projects, which is a huge load off our backs, and Cassie wrote about our time editing for Silent Images’ blog. You can read Cassie’s blog post “Practicing Perspective” by clicking here.

Below is a video we produced for South America Mission’s music school ministry in Recife, Brazil. We actually recorded the ministry staff playing a traditional Brazilian song for the music track in this video, which gives you a taste of the local culture.

We’ll be sharing more videos with you little by little, as we don’t want to overwhelm you with too many awesome stories at once! However, below is a sneak peek to the beautiful work of Threads of Hope in Peru, and we look forward to sharing three other videos we produced for them, after they’re premiered at an event they’re hosting in the Dallas area in October.

Thanks for following us on this amazing journey that God has taken us on — we’re so thankful for each and every one of our followers’ support!